Galileo’s Ship was one of the oldest relativity thought experiments

We think it ’s obvious that the Earth goes around the Sunday , today , but back before Copernicus , detractors had the most obvious debate potential against heliocentrism . To combat this , in his argument in favor of a sun - center universe , Galileo derive up with a thought experiment about theory of relativity now love as Galileo ’s Ship .

Back during the times when company scrutinized the stars as they – like all the universe – dutifully circle the Earth , some citizenry detect that something was amiss . Although all the stars go , they did n’t all move at the same speed . They did n’t move in the same bow . They did n’t even move in the same direction . Astronomers , like Copernicus and Galileo , set out popping up and proposing a unexampled theory about why this happened . The stars were n’t moving . The Earth was .

The full point was so bright that everyone heed to it laughed themselves sick . Sure , it might explicate a few movement of back breaker in the sky , but it contained a consistent col so large they did n’t understand how anyone could break down to see it . They were all bear on the Earth – and it was n’t moving . What ’s more , quite a few people make love what it felt like when the Earth did move . Houses crack up . Possessions fell over . People were knocked off their foundation . If the earth really was make a motion no one should be able to get their footing .

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To silence the knocker , Galileo came up with one of the early ( and still valid ) thought experiments – experience as Galileo ’s Ship :

Shut yourself up with some friend in the main cabin below decks on some large ship , and have with you there some fly , butterfly stroke , and other minor flying animals . Have a large bowl of water with some fish in it ; hang up a bottle that empty overlook by drop into a wide vessel beneath it . With the ship standing still , watch over carefully how the little fauna fly with equal fastness to all sides of the cabin . . . . When you have keep all these things cautiously ( though doubtless when the ship is endure still everything must happen in this way of life ) , have the ship proceed with any speed you like , so long as the motion is uniform and not fluctuate this path and that . You will discover not the least change in all the effects named , nor could you severalise from any of them whether the ship was moving or standing still .

The concept is also call the Salvatius Ship . Salvatius is the sassy storyteller in Galileo ’s book expounding on the veracity of heliocentrism . This was not just an former thought experiment , but an other idea of relativity . Galileo took the first dance step towards note that , if all the effects of ceaseless motion are exactly the same as the outcome of hush , there is n’t any way of telling what is in motion and what it not . He was encumber by the fact that this idea did n’t include speed motion – the domain would need Einstein equalize quickening and gravity for that – but he took a footstep towards both heliocentrism and the realization that there is no out-and-out figure of computer address for anyone .

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